Send them if you like but hopes and prayers do little to help those in a crisis.
Because best wishes and kind words don’t feed families after a flood. They don’t save homes from forest fires or shelter refugees fleeing conflict.
These problems need action, money, aid, shelter, food, water and medicine.
What use are prayers and good intentions here?
I wonder if we see this same passive in-activism for men and boys, with the numerous issues they experience being addressed through feel good platitudes such as ‘men can cry!’
The sentiment is good, but it doesn’t mean much to the homeless men starving on the street, the male survivors barred from refuges, or the fathers losing children in family court.
So, can we do better?
Is ‘men can cry’ the new ‘sending thoughts and prayers?’
--
Sources:
ONS Homeless Deaths: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsofhomelesspeopleinenglandandwales/2020registrations#deaths-of-homeless-people-data
Congress.gov, Causes of Death: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/5986/text?r=16
Boys' education gap: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/aug/13/girls-overtake-boys-in-a-level-and-gcse-maths-so-are-they-smarter
Sentences disparity: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2144002
==
Platitudes like "thoughts and prayers" and "men can cry" are cheap and easy words. They're not intended to solve anything or do anything except give the one reciting them a sense of being a good person while keeping a safe distance from the problem. And especially, it's a way of telling men that they've just been doing things wrong, rather than that there are tangible societal disadvantages that require changes in law, policy or resources.
